New Delhi- The Supreme Court has assured assistance to a poor Dalit youth who, despite passing the IIT entrance exam in his final attempt after immense hard work, lost his seat at the Dhanbad campus due to his inability to pay the fee of ₹17,500 by the deadline.

A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra on Tuesday assured 18-year-old Atul Kumar’s lawyer, saying, “We will help you as much as we can, but what were you doing for the last three months since the deadline for fee submission expired on June 24?”

Atul’s parents had failed to deposit the requisite ₹17,500 by June 24 to secure his seat.

The young man’s parents had approached the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, Jharkhand State Legal Services Authority, and even the Madras High Court in a bid to save his seat.

After hearing the arguments, the bench issued a notice to the Joint Seat Allocation Authority of IIT Madras, which conducted this year's entrance exam.

The lawyer argued that it was extremely difficult for the student to arrange ₹17,500 by 5 p.m. on June 24, just four days after the seat was allotted at IIT Dhanbad.

Kumar, the son of a daily wage laborer, hails from Titora village in Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh, and belongs to a Below Poverty Line (BPL) family. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes also expressed its inability to assist him in the matter.